Yard games, such as croquet, are well known. The game of croquet has been played for decades. Early croquet games typically included wooden mallets, wooden balls, metal-wire wickets, and wooden stakes. Newer games have some of the pieces made out of plastic.
In a standard croquet game, wickets are set within a playing field in a standard configuration. A player progresses his or her ball through all the wickets (typically 6, 7, or 9), toward a turning stake, which is located at the far side of the field. A player gets an extra turn for causing their croquet ball to pass through a wicket. After striking the turning stake with the ball, the player returns through the wickets to the finishing stake. The first to strike the finishing stake is the winner.
If a first player's ball strikes another player's ball during the first player's turn (a croquet), the first player is allowed to knock the other player's ball by resting their ball next to the other player's ball, holding their own ball under their foot, and striking their ball so as to send the second player's ball rolling far away.
Although the game of croquet is highly entertaining, playing the same game, even with variation, can get repetitive and cause players to become disinterested.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other limitations in the prior art.